


We'll Catch You

by abyss1826



Series: Related oneshots [1]
Category: Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Minor Dick Grayson/Koriand'r, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 01:36:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16714063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abyss1826/pseuds/abyss1826
Summary: Dick returns to the motel mysteriously but not unexpectedly quiet about what happened in Chicago.I'm posting this from my phone without alternative so tags are difficult I'm sorry





	We'll Catch You

**Author's Note:**

> High-key I started writing this wanting to dedicate it to the couple of authors in the small pool that really inspired me but as the fanfic piles up there's. Too many. It's so great. I'm love. If y'all know me from your comments you know you're being @'ed and I love you.

“So the guy who sent that family after me, he’s dead?”

Dick nodded, looking down at the floor and running a hand through his hair. The four of them were standing in one of the motel rooms, called together for a meeting as soon as he had gotten back from Chicago. 

“I couldn’t get anything out of him. We’re back to square one.”

“What does that mean?” Gar asked, sitting down on the bed.

“We wait for someone else to try to kill us, I suppose,” Kori sighed, straightening one of her rings.

“No,” Dick rebuked sharply, making the kids glace at one another. “We’ll move again, or else we’re sitting ducks where they’ve already found us. We can figure things out from there.”

“Where will we go?” Rachel asked.

“I don’t know. We can… deal with it on the road.” Gar frowned at him.

“Is that it? We’re just gonna go?”

“Yes. Make sure you’re not leaving anything behind.” Kori stared after him as he left the room.

“Someone isn’t telling us everything that happened.” She glanced at Rachel. He'd been gone for a little over a day.

“When does he ever….”

 

Kori met Dick at the car ahead of the others. Tossing her purse into the passenger seat, she stood with the door open, watching him on the other side of the car. 

“Something on my face?” He asked when he met her gaze.

“You look tired,” she remarked.

“It's been a hell of a week,” he replied, putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket. She raised her eyebrows as she watched him suppress a yawn. She waited to ask him when the last time he had slept was until the other two were within earshot.

It took him too long to come up with an answer.

“I don't think you should be driving dude,” Gar chuckled nervously.

“I'm fine,” he replied sternly, opening the door. Rachel put her hand on his.

“You didn't sleep here or Chicago, did you?” He clenched his jaw and sighed. 

“I'm driving,” Kori announced, rounding the front of the car. Dick opened his mouth to argue but she cut him off. “Is there any reason I  _ shouldn _ 't?”

“No,” Rachel answered for him, “he's just a control freak,” she grinned.

“Do I have to pick  _ you _ up this time?” The woman asked cheekily when he still hadn't moved from the driver's side. Rachel quickly removed her hand from Dick’s, getting into the car with a muttered  _ oh Jesus _ . Gar got in next to her, stacking the pillows between them, and asked what was wrong. She just shook her head, clearly embarrassed.

“Did you steal those?” Dick asked, frowning at the kids in the back seat.

“She told us to,” Gar shrugged, averting his eyes.

“I  _ suggested _ it,” Kori sighed, starting the car. Dick turned around and buckled his seatbelt, scanning the other three to make sure theirs were as well. Kori reached back and grabbed a pillow, tossing it in his lap. “Get some sleep.”

“We’ll wake you up if we stop anywhere,” Rachel added. The man sighed and put the pillow against the window, still watching the road.

“Go east.”

“Why?”

“It's a direction.”

“Do you have a destination in mind, or?” She asked, tilting her head in his direction.

“Just go east and pick a motel whenever you think we need to stop for the night.”

“What's east?” Gar whispered. Rachel shrugged. “Poke him and figure it out.”

“He'll notice,” she chuckled, trying to keep her voice down.

“Will he?”

“Yes,” Dick replied, startling them into the end of the conversation.

“So what's your favorite animal?” Gar asked after a few quiet minutes on the freeway.

“Why?” The girl looked at him. He shrugged.

“I was thinking about what everyone else would turn into if you were like me.”

“Oh. Probably a bird? Flying would be really cool.”

“Neat. Dick, lemme guess, a robin?”

“Elephant,” the man corrected, muffled with sleep.

“Your favorite animal is an elephant?”

“Mhm.”

“How'd you come up with 'Robin’ then?”

“'ts an old nickname.”

“Wouldn't people figure that out though?”

Dick turned his head slowly to peer at the boy through the gap beneath the head of the seat.

“You want me to sleep or no?”

“Sorry.”

Rachel laughed quietly behind the back of her hand.

 

Every once in a while Kori would shift her eyes from the road to the others in the car. Rachel was asleep, hood up, slumped over the pile of pillows in the middle seat. Gar was playing a game, shoulder leaned up against his door to give her as much room as possible. Kory smiled. Gar was a sweet friend, she thought. She was glad Rachel had met him. She looked at the man next to her. She'd never seen him asleep before. For once he looked peaceful, with his left hand curled into the pillow against his forehead, lips slightly parted, chest slowly rising and falling.

Kori's eyes returned to the road.

He had opened up back there, though it was slight. She chose to see it as a victory. It was the only piece of information he had shared about himself without necessity. Even that night they had, she wasn't disappointed in the least, but she hadn't gotten him to talk to her the way she had hoped he would beforehand.

Exhaustion must just be his prerequisite for sharing, she thought with a grin.

 

“Should we wake him up?” Rachel asked, getting out of the car. They had pulled up at a rest stop, groggy and uncomfortable. Gar shrugged, shutting the door.

“Would he be mad at me if I didn’t?” Kori asked, only to confirm her own answer.

“Yeah,” Rachel nodded. The woman stepped back into the car and placed a hand on Dick’s shoulder. 

“What,” he groaned, not opening his eyes.

“We’re at a stop.”

“A what?” He sat up rubbing his eyes.

“Come on,” she told him instead, getting back out. She waited for him while the kids went ahead to the restroom. 

“Where are we?” he asked when he got out of the car.

“East,” she answered, side eyeing him with a wry smile. He shook his head and adjusted his jacket. “You look like you slept well,” she commented, reaching up and fixing the hair sticking up from the pillow. 

“Cars are easy to sleep in,” he shrugged.

“Why is that?”

“We were on the move a lot when I was a kid. I got used to it.” Kori nodded and followed him when he began to walk around, watching the few other people at the stop. 

“Checking the perimeter?” she teased.

“Stretching my legs.” They both knew she was right. “Drinks or a snack, either of you? He asked when he saw Rachel and Gar exit the building.

“Could we stop for lunch?” Rachel suggested. Dick checked the time, eyebrows raised.

“Yeah, we’ll keep an eye out for exits.”

“Thanks.”

They piled  into the car and rolled back onto the freeway, hilly farmland whizzing past the windows. 

“Well that’s one stop without incident,” Dick mused, hugging the pillow against his chest. Kori looked over at him, not escaping his notice.

“So letting me drive isn’t the end of the world after all?” The man sighed, burying his face into the pillow. Kori laughed.

 

“Alright,” Dick began as he put the car into park. He had managed to hijack the drivers seat after they had gotten lunch. “I’ll go in and see what they have.” It was about 5:30, and he had pulled into another small motel.

“I don’t understand why he can’t just let us sleep somewhere nice for a change,” Kori sighed, looking into the backseat.

“I mean, he’s right about the strategic safety,” Rachel shrugged.

“That didn’t stop anything at the last place.”

“You can plead your case later, I guess,” Gar joked. 

A few minutes later Dick returned.

“We’re upstairs.” They followed him, confused when he lead them all to one room. “I figured it’d be harder to split us up if we all shared a room, so here we are.”

“That other bed isn’t even a double, though,” Gar pointed with a frown.

“You can sleep on the floor.” The three of them stared at Dick in surprise, waiting for him to crack a smile. He didn’t.

“Oh,” Gar muttered eventually.

“What the fuck Dick,” Rachel exclaimed. Only then did he grin and toss the boy a room key.

“You’re in the single right next to us.” Garfield stood holding the key in confusion as Dick moved on, taking down the room’s mirror and turning it around.

“Why did you do that?” Rachel asked, almost laughing. Dick looked confused.

“You didn't want the mirror before-”

“-No, no, to Gar.”

“Oh! I just thought it'd be funny,” he shrugged.

“Dick's got a sense of humor, who knew?” Kori remarked, hidden behind a teasing tone.

“I’m hilarious,” he stated, walking into the bathroom. That mirror wasn't secured to the wall either. 

“Why are you doing that?” Gar asked, poking his head in. The man shrugged without answer.

“I-my reflection does…weird things, sometimes.” Rachel gave an awkward, apologetic grin.

“You don't need to explain yourself Rach,” Dick said softly.

“It's fine.” She glanced down at the ugly green carpeting and counted the stains. Dick broke the silence.

“You guys alright with pizza for dinner again?”

“We've had pizza two nights in a row,” Kori stated.

“You don't eat,” the man pointed out. The kids glanced at each other with wide eyes as they thought back and realized he was right. “So, pizza?”

“You're just gonna drop that on us and walk away from it?” Gar exclaimed.

“Yeah.” The boy looked at Rachel, mouth agape. She looked between them.

“I think pizza's fine,” she concluded. Dick nodded and picked up the room's phone.

“That's all you're gonna say?” Gar hissed. Rachel shrugged.

A few minutes later Dick left again to pick it up. When he got back they had moved the small round table between the beds, one chair in front of the nightstand, the other across from it. Rachel sat cross-legged on the single, already claiming it as hers. Kori sat on the other bed, leaving the chairs to the boys. 

“So what held you up in Chicago?” Kori asked, chin in hands, staring unblinkingly at Dick.

“And old friend of mine was in some trouble. I dealt with it for him.”

“From the circus?” Rachel asked after shoving her bite of pizza in her cheek.

“Circus?” The other two asked in near unison. Dick sighed, clenching his jaw and staring emptily at the center of the table.

“Yeah.” He went on when he realized he wouldn't be able to avoid Gar's coming onslaught of questions. “I grew up in one before my parents were murdered. We were aerialists.”

“That's so cool!” he exclaimed. “Not… about your parents but-”

“-Yeah, I get it.” Rachel reached out and put a comforting and apologetic hand on his arm, but he winced and drew away from her, all but physically hissing in pain. She looked at him, startled.

“What is it?” Kori asked.

“Why would you do that?” Rachel demanded.

“It's just a cut!”

“Why did you do it?!” Dick pushed his anger to the side when he saw how distressed the girl was at seeing him cut himself.

“Hey, hey, it's alright,” he said calmly, putting a hand on her shoulder, “I didn't mean anything by it.” 

“Then what was it for?” Dick looked at how Rachel was fighting back tears and decided it would be best, for her at least, to just say it.

“I found out that the Bat had a tracker in my arm. I took it out.” They stared at him.

“How do you not remember it being put there?” Gar asked.

“I'm sure he didn't want me to,” Dick replied, his voice laced with bitterness.

“That's messed up.”

“It's how he operates.”

“How did you find out?” Kori asked, watching him closely. A long silence. She had hit yet another wall.

“Is your friend okay at least?” Rachel asked.

“Yeah,” he replied somberly, and it didn't take an empath to tell there was a whole other batch of wrong on that front as well. “He's fine.”

“Good.” She smiled, wondering if her powers were getting stronger, or if his guilt just hurt that much.

 

“Just because you slept in the car doesn't mean I'm going to let you stay up all night,” Kori said quietly, cautious of Rachel, already asleep, as she crept up behind the desk Dick was sitting at. His face was illuminated only by the glow of his phone. “Who’s Lucius?” She asked, looking over his shoulder at who he was texting.

“Someone we need to meet with.”

“Well I'm sure they need to get some sleep too.” She decided to take a chance and bent over to wrap her arms around his shoulders, rewarded when he didn't push her away. She rested her chin on the top of his head. His hair was still damp, just like last time. She gave an exaggerated sigh that made his bangs ruffle.

“Just a sec.” He sent one last dizzyingly long paragraph before putting down his phone. “You can get off me now.”

“Can I?”

“Kori.”

“Dick.” He craned his neck to look up at her. “Are you going to come to bed with me?”

“No, but I'll  _ go _ to bed.” He grinned and she giggled softly, finally letting go and allowing him up.

Dick  _ did _ go to bed with her, but even there he was closed off. Kori stared at him with his back to her, more than a respectful amount of space between them. She doubted anyone would guess they had ever been intimate at all if they saw this. She watched as his breath deepened and evened out. 

Kori had been staring at the ceiling for a while when she heard Dick roll over. She turned to face him. He looked like he was frowning. Kori closed the gap between them and brushed the bangs away from his eyes. The man flinched, a white knuckled grip on nothing.

“Dick?” She put a tentative hand on his shoulder. He jolted awake, nearly falling over the edge of the bed. “Are you alright?” she asked, even though she knew the answer.

“I'm fine,” he said quickly.

“ _ Dick _ .”

“ _ I'm fine. _ ”

She tried to put her hand on his but he quickly left the bed.

“ _ Dick! _ ” She wanted to yell at him, but she couldn't wake Rachel. A puff of crisp air hit her as the door closed behind him. Kori sat still, conflicted over following him or staying with Rachel. She gave a huff of exasperation and put on her boots.

She couldn't see him in the parking lot or the car from the bannister. She cursed to herself, doubling it when Rachel sleepily padded outside to join her.

“Have you looked up?” She asked, leaning against the woman's arm. 

“Oh my God,” she muttered when she did, and spotted him sitting on the roof. With a huff she climbed up onto the railing, waving off the girls warning to be careful, and hoisted herself up. The look on Dick's face was nearly priceless, hampered only by the underlying hint that he had started crying. “You can't keep running from your problems.”

“And you can't keep chasing yours,” he replied, quickly wiping his face with his sleeve.

“Who said you were a problem?” she chuckled, settling her smile when he didn't return in kind. “You might feel better if you talk about it.”

“Talk about what?” His arms were crossed, resting on drawn up knees, eyes staring blankly ahead of them.

“Anything,” she couldn't help but exclaimed, “Fuck, Dick, any of it. You keep bottling this up and that shelf is gonna break on you. Brooding on some rooftop isn't going to help.”

“Just another habit,” he sighed bitterly. Kori nodded, silently understanding who he had gotten it from.

“Why did you come up here?”

“To be alone.”

“Well… I don't think you should be.” He looked over at her, and she held is gaze. “You only think you want to be because you're used to it. Another  _ habit _ .” She leaned closer to him, absentmindedly wondering if he was cold as he let the silence stretch between them. “So what's on your mind?” He looked away from her and rested his chin on his arms.

“Yesterday just has me remembering how I had hoped one of the guys from the circus would adopt me after my parents died. They all split up after it happened… now we're the only two left.” his voice sounded and inch from fragile. Kori put her arm around his shoulders, and he didn't care enough to fight her. “I understand why Clay didn't, I don't hate him for it but. I've never stopped wishing I could've been adopted by someone capable of thinking of me as his son.”

At that point Rachel had had enough listening in, and managed to contort her powers into lifting herself onto the roof with them, immediately wrapping her arms around Dick's middle. She felt him like a storm, and saw faces he'd probably rather not share, but she squeezed her eyes shut and ignored it all.

“You should be in bed,” he told her quietly.

“I'm pretty sure I should be here,” she whispered. For a moment the only sounds were of their breathing.

“And now he's adopted another kid as his actual son, not as a ward like I was,” Dick finally continued. “It's just….”

“What's different?” Kory stated.

“Yeah.”

Rachel didn't mention the Robin she saw, the stranger in Dick's parents colors bearing his mother's nickname, unaware, 'drawing fire’, a whole new flavor of fucked up compared to Dick and not even knowing it. He needed to be someone else but he didn't know who.

Rachel didn't need to mention any of it. He knew.

“I think we should all head back to bed,” Kori said eventually, as she saw Rachel's hug slowly slacken and Dicks fight to keep his eyes open become a losing battle.

“How're we gonna get down?” The girl mumbled.

“Jump,” Dick replied, “We’ll catch you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are my life blood <3


End file.
